Mr Bliss
by MarcusAU
Summary: Dying isn't really what they say it is, in fact it's quite the opposite. The Faceless Ones sure know how to make a mess of a body, but is dying really the end?
1. Chapter 1

_Mr Bliss_

They say your brain keeps living for several seconds after you are assumed dead. They say you can hear and feel everything around you for that moment. Some people say you can feel your soul leave your body. It's like that. Only worse.

Dying was excruciating, sorry to say it, but it really was. I wasn't used to feeling pain and this was exceptional pain. This is the last thing my eyes saw.

All hell was breaking loose, Valkyrie was out of it, Skulduggery was having a hard time with Jaron Gallow and the cleavers had just arrived. The stupid boy, Fetcher, was opening the portal and these slivers of shadows passed through, they materialised, they were horrendous. They didn't seem remotely human. They had hands and the likes, but there was no form to their lumpy grotesque forms. They honestly looked like a lump of muscle thrown together. Just the right thing for a challenge. Skulduggery threw a fireball at one of them; hit it in the face, that didn't work.

A cleaver rushed in to pursue this new enemy, it lasted a second, the Faceless One looked at it and the cleaver shuddered, it screamed under its visor and collapsed into a puddle of blood a grime. It nearly frightened me, Skulduggery went at it again, and this time so did I. _That wasn't smart, thinking back_. It felt that. Looked right at me, I felt like jelly all at once and I felt inhuman. I felt like i was being torn to shreds by thousands of invisible creatures, then it pointed. This part all happened in slow motion. It was sickening. The first thing I felt was my rib cage, it splintered outward showering the grass with my warm blood, and then my lungs collapsed. My stomach flew out and at this point my heart stopped beating. I felt it crush within my unfolded chest; I spared a look to Valkyrie. Then my skull imploded. My eyes filled with blood and shattered, I could feel every particle and fibre of my being rupturing with a sickening crunch.

I'm really quite surprised I lasted that seven seconds...I didn't really have much brain left after it pointed at me. But yes that's what I remember seeing. Turns out though, your body is quite separate from your soul and that's what I am now, I'm a soul wandering the world. It wasn't a very pleasant death to be fair, but the battle was quite good at least.. I stuck around long enough to get a glimpse of Skulduggery getting dragged into the portal; I was even here when he came back. He really doesn't know how to die.

Dying isn't that whole, floating experience, not like falling asleep at all. It's like being tortured and feeling your death over and over again, the pain and the suffering are just continuous, as though your mind isn't sure where to go past pain. But you get used to it, never goes away, it just shifts, you allow yourself to become distracted by it. So that's what I did. I distracted myself so well in fact that I managed to get out of my dying position and walk around, I wobbled at first, didn't really know how to use my legs after all that time. Or was it a few seconds? I don't even know. Either way, I could move.

The first thing I figured out is that I couldn't do magic. That was a blow, I think that hurt is harder to ignore than dying. I rather liked being different. Although I guess I am a walking dead guy without a body. I wasn't really sure what to do, so I made my first visit. I went to a library; I hadn't been there in years, hundreds of years in fact... China said I had a habit of destroying it as soon as I walked in. So I strolled over, the sun looked hot, I couldn't really feel it, I dodged passed people who walked towards me impassively. I did this a few times. Then I dodged through a pole. This was fun. I knew the city well. I decided on the rout and I walked straight to it. I flinched the first few times, but then walking through objects became quite ordinary.

"Hello" I jumped, or I would have if I knew how, actually no I wouldn't have, most unlike myself, I think dying has unhinged me.. Anyway, that was revealing.

I turned and an old bearded man was standing on a lounge apparently on-top of a young male. He was standing on his legs. The man rubbed them subconsciously, staring at the screen.

"He's been there for an hour scratching away, watching this blasted TV show"

"That's nice, I have to go"

And so he turned to leave, that was strange, there were other ghost people.

"What am I?" I said abruptly turning back

"Lost?"

He vanished.

"Asshole"

I continued on my way and I strolled up to the street and decided to turn the corner. I was confronted with a scene, China was on her knees, Skulduggery was staring at her and then left abruptly as Eliza Scorn cackled loudly. Valkyrie said a few words and turned off too. Eliza was blissful. _Never liked that woman._ She hit China and I snapped and reached out towards her running as full pelt, as I grabbed her, the library blew up.

"Typical" I said under my breath. I hadn't actually grabbed Eliza but she definitely felt something because her arm dropped to her side immediately the smile on her face wavering only for an instant before she spat at China and kicked her in the chest. She left, leaving China in a bloody heap, alone and defenceless. I stayed while she cried. I'm not one for sympathy but I guess I tried, she couldn't hear me, in fact she was laying in a heap right through my calf..

_This is going to take some getting used to... _


	2. Chapter 2

_Miss Sorrows_

Gravel tore into her fragile flesh. Her tears spattered the ground. She looked hollow, gaunt and broken. She scraped at her tattered clothes and felt at the tears in her flesh. She stood, slowly, rigid with pain, and dragged her feet across the ground, away from her precious library.

People stared at her. Four men dropped all they were carrying and rushed to help her, a woman called an ambulance professing her lover for China; all the while and cursing the demon who could have harmed such a perfect creature. I travelled in the back of the ambulance. It was quite a challenge at first, I kept slipping in and out of the back, not to mention that I wasn't affected by inertia so I had to float along trying to stay with the van and keeping an eye on China. I'd never had much time for her when I was alive. I guess being dead makes you just how much you've really been missing out on.

She'd live. She was tough, I knew that much about my sister, she sure could take a beating. I'd punched her through a tree once or twice as kids and shed get up laughing with a broken arm or leg. I was...unhinged... This was hundreds of years ago, these days the equivalent would be punching your sister through a building... It doesn't have the same ring to it...

She did look quite sickly but... her skin was turning a light shade of green, though that might be a bit of healing magic... I wouldn't have a clue what kind of arsenal of tattoos she has etched into her crisp skin. Either way, it made my heart ache, it would have anyway. I missed magic to be quite fair with myself; I couldn't feel it in my fingertips anymore. Why exist if I can't actually do anything?... it was quite a philosophical thought, "Why?" I never bother to ask that. I just rush in... I guess that's why my body looks like it had a run in with a human lawnmower.

"Haha, I'm a fool" I whispered ruefully to myself as the ambulance pulled into the hospital and China was taken away, the doctors staring uncomprehendingly at her beauty, "I have no future, I'm a spirit, an impression of who I was, what did Skullduggery call it? An unbalanced spirit? When you die a gruesome and painful death and hang to the world with pure rage and ultimate purpose of revenge" I sneered and scowled and boiled at once. I didnt feel angry at my death, and who could I venge upon for my stupidity, how could I even manage to do anything, I can't do magic, I can't even be seen... I don't really know what I CAN do... Thats an intriguing prospect. Perhaps there is more to me than I can see...

I thought back. Through hundreds of years of knowledge and wisdom, the answer had to be in my head somewhere.

It clicked, I looked up. I left the hospital immediately (Maybe I'm not so different). I walked off, down the main road and through to the highway... I had my destination in mind and I knew exactly what I wanted. I was going to get it too. No matter how long it took.


	3. Chapter 3

HEY GUYS! Sorry for taking so long to get back into it! I had exam block and I had to study a lot more than I predicted! Hope you guys like these twists!

Seer Seeking

Bliss walked through the trees. He'd been walking for three days. The chirping birds had begun to annoy him two days ago and his sanity was at breaking point. Death had, however, given him a distinct new outlook on the beauty of the world. A deer cascaded through the undergrowth, shaking the morning dew from low-lying branches.

"Gods almighty I hate walking" He thought grimly to himself

The darkness was suffocating, the further he walked the softer the chirping became, the silence that followed was deafening. He could have cut through it with a knife. It permeated through the air, though it made its presence unknown... Unknown, yet calculating.

Suddenly, out of the darkness, a cottage became ever more visible. Bliss didn't slow, though he did assume a look of relief. Even as a ghost, walking sucked. He passed through the trees now, his exhaustion overcome the irksome feeling of being impaled. A warm draft passed through him as he drifted slowly through the front door of the cottage.

It was dark in here too, too dark for the incredible amount of humidity which choked the air. Bliss would have sweat if he still had sweat glands. He kept walking through the walls of the house. It was getting hotter, more difficult to see. Finally he made it to the very middle of the house. It seemed as if the entire building had been built around this room. Steam was cascading to the ceiling. It filled the room till it was almost a solid mass. The floor had seemed solid at first. It wasn't. It was grated. And the only light in the room was coming from below the grate. The hot coals billowed steam as trickles of water fell among them. It was quite eerie.

A woman was kneeling in the middle of the room her back towards Bliss, eyes closed, calm and concentrated. It was the only bit of solid ground. It was marble and gleamed in the morbidly lit room. He knew her, though he'd never had time for her or her kind in his lifetime, they were weak. Never the less, every creature had a purpose in the network of the universe. Even her.

He stood silent for a while, floating above a section of the coals, watching, thinking, calculating. The woman was waiting for something, he wasn't sure what. He'd never seen her practice before, so he simply allowed himself to observe. Her breathing slowed suddenly. Her eyes shot open. Images flashed and wavered upon the steam. They shook into forms and Bliss shuddered. The world had been torn apart. Valkyrie was there, she seemed older, stronger, more sure of herself... But darker, she didn't have emotion on her cheeks, and her eyes were devoid of that curiousness which flashed at Skulduggery. Instead, there was hate. Hate and Death. Lots of Death. In fact from what bliss could see... everything was dead except for Valkyrie. Skulduggery was there, but he isn't really alive anyway.

He'd had enough, he moved forward to leave the room. He walked briskly... A building exploded to his right. Bliss tripped, not over anything, just uncoordinated by the shock of the sudden explosion, but as he fell, his hand brushed through the woman's leg and the images shifted.

He saw his parents torn apart by Malevolent's hate fuelled rage.

China, younger, possibly sixteen, perhaps younger still, running from a grim castle, paper men with solid fists floated after her as she stumbled, her leg was bleeding, he face was torn under her chin.

A hand reached out for him. A woman's voice pleaded. Her face became visible, tears streaming down as she yelled at Bliss to run, he refused. She hurled at him with all her remaining might. He was flung backwards as shadows tore through the woman's body. Vile stepped through her fragmented flesh. Bliss ran...

The scene faded. The coals dimmed and lights turned on suddenly. Bliss was laying where he fell. He was shocked still. A hand passed through him. Cassandra Pharaohs had risen. Her eyes were closed again and concentrated. She felt around, reaching for something. Then stopped suddenly, she stopped right before his heart, then lunged her hand forward. He gasped. She gasped. He'd felt her hand. She'd felt his presence.

"Hello Mr Bliss" She croaked inquisitively

_He couldn't respond his compliance. _

"I can feel your mind working" she seemed to smile "You're very lost"

_He couldn't help feeling worried at what she could see. _

"Everything"

_Well then. _

"Hmmmmm"

_You're an old bat. _

"You're dead"

_Valkyrie destroyed the world. _

"She did"

_This is odd._

"I agree"

_How is this happening? _

"I think I just found your soul.

_HAHAHAHAHAHA_

"Who is Lianne?"

He stiffened. He hadn't thought of that name for a long time. A thousand images flashed in his mind.

"Ahhhhh... My apologies"

_Forgiven. I'm dead, but you're talking to me. What am I? _

"If I were to guess, I'd say you are and essence, a shadow, a reflection. It happens when people die horrific deaths and leave something to cling to this world for"

_China. _

"Precisely"

_Can I come back. _

"Back?"

_I want a body, I want magic. _

Cassandra thought for a long while. For a very long while. Too long for the answer to possibly be no. She was thinking about whether it was a good idea to give the information up. Ghosts aren't nice creatures, as a general rule.

"It wouldn't hurt to have some more man power" she whispered "Hmmmmm..."

_You know I am for you. I don't know what has been happening in our world. But my sister is currently in hospital, I watched her bleed and almost die, and I could do nothing about it. Please. I need to know. _

The silence that followed stretched; he expected it to stretch for an eternity. Surprisingly, it didn't. In fact, he concluded that the Sanctuary in Ireland really must be desperate. Because she answered quite promptly.

"Go to the Sanctuary. They have a new doctor there. You may have heard of him" She paused "Doctor Nye"

THE Nye? In the Sanctuary? What happened to Grouse?

"Torn apart by a remnant which possessed his assistant. Any way. The point is. Nye has been in exile, researching the human soul" She paused again "It isn't full proof, in fact I'm not even sure if it will work but it's your best shot"

_Thank you. How do I get him to see me? I doubt he'll be able to feel me like you are now. _

"You're right. Dying didn't dull your mind. I'll take you there."

_You will? _

"Yes, as I said. We could use the man power"

I sure hope this works.

"Me too Mr Bliss, me too"

...


End file.
